Rule breakers: The ABCs of betrayal

Monday

Aug 22, 2011 at 12:01 AMAug 22, 2011 at 2:02 PM

How can a child rapist still have a teaching license? Why is a teacher who married his student still in the classroom? How can a man who has been on trial four times for molesting children be allowed to teach?

How can a child rapist still have a teaching license?

Why is a teacher who married his student still in the classroom?

How can a man who has been on trial four times for molesting children be allowed to teach?

The answer is simple and stunning: Ohio's system to punish rogue teachers is flawed at all levels -- school, district and state.

It puts the rights of teachers before those of students. It hides information from parents and potential employers. It allows secret deals with troubled teachers.

A 10-month Dispatch investigation, a first-of-its-kind analysis of the system, found that 1,722 educators have been disciplined since 2000 for everything from shoplifting to murder. Two-thirds were allowed to return to the classroom or start school jobs.

Today and the next three days, The Dispatch will explain the glaring gaps in teacher discipline and detail some educators' bad behavior.

Since 2000:

• At least 85 educators had sex with children.

A Kenton basketball coach plied a 13-year-old boy with beer and then raped him. A Ross County band director seduced a high-school student in a cheap motel.

• Nearly one in four who emotionally, physically or sexually abused children still holds a teacher's license.

Among them are a Warren County teacher who shared a bed with a 17-year-old girl on a school trip and a Columbus teacher who bound an unruly kindergartner to a chair with duct tape.

• At least 20 educators kept their licenses at least two years after being charged with felonies against children.

A Springfield tutor who slept with a student was still licensed three years after his arrest. A Tuscarawas County teacher who married her special-education student went to prison for sexual battery but kept her certificate for two years.

• Districts often fail to tell the state and other school districts when teachers behave badly.

Cleveland schools fired teachers for hitting students or placing them in danger but didn't alert the state. Columbus did not warn the South-Western schools before the district hired a teacher who had impregnated one of his students.

• At least 20 educators and coaches -- many convicted criminals -- apparently have escaped the detection of the Ohio Department of Education. A Columbus charter-school teacher who had sex with a 13-year-old girl and a Springfield teacher who raped young girls are still licensed.

• The state Education Department has labeled 246 discipline cases as secret, even to parents and schools. Understanding from the department why these educators were disciplined is virtually impossible, even though many cases have played out in court.

The Dispatch discovered that at least 50 of those 246 cases involved crimes against children. The department will not reveal details about a Cleveland tutor who molested autistic boys or a Reynoldsburg teacher convicted of having sex with a 12-year-old boy at school.

To make sure some cases remain hidden, the state blacked out or erased information, a potential violation of Ohio's public-records law.

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann said he couldn't believe the department so blatantly ignored his instructions to make information public.

"That's bullshit," Dann said.

The department maintains that various state and federal laws prevent the release of certain types of information.

The disciplinary cases represent about 1 percent of the more than 15,000 allegations of educator misconduct received by the department since 2000. Educators can be punished for a wide range of offenses under the umbrella of "conduct unbecoming" the profession -- not just actions that violate laws.

But Ohio has no systematic way to alert the public when an educator is punished. The department doesn't post written reprimands online.

The discipline cases involve a fraction of Ohio's 155,000 licensed educators. According to the department's Adrian Allison, "99.999999 percent of our educators do an excellent job."

Most school sex-abuse allegations, however, are never reported. Federal figures show that students tend to keep quiet about sexual abuse in schools, at most telling someone in an estimated 11 percent of cases.

jsmithrichards@dispatch.com

jriepenhoff@dispatch.com

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